Mumbo Jumbo

A Novel

By: Ishmael Reed

Narrated by: David Sadzin

Ishmael Reed's inspired fable of the ragtime era, in which a social movement threatens to suppress the spread of black culture - hailed by Harold Bloom as one of the 500 greatest books of the Western canon

In 1920s America, a plague is spreading fast. From New Orleans to Chicago to New York, the "Jes Grew" epidemic makes people desperate to dance, overturning social norms in the process. Anyone is vulnerable and when they catch it, they'll bump and grind into a frenzy. Working to combat the Jes Grew infection are the puritanical Atonists, a group bent on cultivating a "Talking Android", an African American who will infiltrate the unruly black communities and help crush the outbreak. But PaPa LaBas, a houngan voodoo priest, is determined to keep his ancient culture - including a key spiritual text - alive.

Spanning a dizzying host of genres, from cinema to academia to mythology, Mumbo Jumbo is a lively ride through a key decade of American history. In addition to ragtime, blues, and jazz, Reed's allegory draws on the Harlem Renaissance, the Back to Africa movement, and America's occupation of Haiti. His style throughout is as avant-garde and vibrant as the music at its center.

©1972 Ishmael Reed (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Unique and enjoyable 👍🏽

Excellent book excellent narrator would have given fives all the way around except for the very long prologue did not enjoy the first 26 or 30 minutes of the book

Important but difficult

I’m sure that this is a very important book. And at times it’s very entertaining. I would have needed a reading guide though to get the full value.

Interesting for Political & Cultural Influence

Interesting Period Piece, told in the “Negro” Slang of the 1920’s, notable in the fact that it was written by a MacArthur Genius Grant Recipient, Pulitzer and National Book Award Nominee and Black Activist Poet and Essayist.
Mumbo Jumbo is a wild fever dream that spans countries, movements and centuries declaiming the attempts by the Powers That Be to suppress the Real Black Culture of music and dance and transform Blacks to docile slaves of the dominant White Culture.

It drops the names and events of the time combining them all with Ancient African myths and traditions to warn African-Americans of the threat to their essence. For those readers unfamiliar with all the references the book is better skimmed for its tone and rhythm since it is difficult to follow. Best appreciated when accompanied by recreational herbs and/or chemicals.

While Harold Bloom included Mumbo Jumbo in his Western Canon of 500 Books, I’m pretty sure that was a gesture of respect for the Author’s Cause rather than for its literary merit. Three Stars.

The mingling of historical facts in mumbo-jumbo.

This book is absolutely enjoyable, entertaining and a must read for those who are students of history.

The Spirit of the blues!

Awesome sauce! Seriously, you don’t have to take this seriously to get a whole lot out of it. It with a creative fabric through the history of musical dance in his country. Somuch parody and so much of Reed telling his truth.